42. Whichever of the two occurs, be patient.What happens to your practice when you extremely happy, when things are going especially well? And what happens to your practice when things are going horribly, and you are not doing well at all? That is what this slogan is about, and the advice is to be patient in either case.It is hard to practice mind training steadily. So we come up with all kinds of excuses to avoid facing our own state of mind and opening to others. Whether we are feeling pain or pleasure, are sad or happy, we get taken over by the intensity and drama of the situation and we lose our bearings.
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When is the actual anniversary of the Village Zendo? You know, who knows? 25 years ago. I can’t remember the exact date because it started just with a handful of people sitting in my apartment.What attracted you to Buddhism initially? I’m a child of the 1960s and for me the beginning was reading Allen Ginsberg and Gary Snyder and D.T. Suzuki, I was excited by the artistic expression of Zen. I was a teenager and I thought “Wow, this is wonderful.” I read about Zen Buddhism for many years without practicing, I became one of these people that talks about Zen and but has no idea. I thought of myself as kind of a Zen woman.
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41. Two activities: one at the beginning, one at the end.
When you start your day, you could actually take a moment to think about what you are doing. Instead of just launching in, you could begin properly, with something in mind beyond just getting through your to-do list. In particular, you could look on each day as an opportunity to practice lojong, or mind training.
At the end of the day, before you fall asleep, instead of just flopping, you could review how you have done. You could begin by appreciating the times you were connected with bodhichitta and joined it with what you were doing. Then you could also reflect on the times when you lost your connection to bodhichitta and acted accordingly.
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40. Correct all wrongs with one intention. This slogan is about the power of establishing the attitude of mind training as a kind of underlying habit of mind. As in the previous slogan, it is about the power of our intention. On the spiritual path we encounter both external and internal obstacles to practice and to awakening. Sometimes you are inspired and other times you are not. Even when you are inspired to practice, all sorts of external obstacles arise: you suddenly get sick, you need to attend to a family crisis, your job leaves us exhausted, etc.
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